Abstract
School belonging has received substantial scholarly attention as children and adolescents spend most of their day at school building relationships with peers and adults. Research shows that students who feel a stronger sense of school belonging tend to exhibit positive academic, social-emotional, and behavioral outcomes. In the past, belonging and loneliness were often used interchangeably, implying that feeling a greater sense of belonging meant feeling less lonely. However, a recent study by Lim and colleagues (2021) proposed a Dual Continuum Model of Belonging and Loneliness to distinguish between these two constructs. To test the application of the model, the current study categorized 774 Korean 4-6th grade students into four groups based on their levels of loneliness and belonging: Socially Fulfilled, Socially Searching, Socially Distressed, and Socially Indifferent. The study then compared the levels of social–emotional health of the four groups to test the model’s usefulness using analysis of covariance and post hoc analyses. Results showed that five of the six pairs of groups had significantly different levels of social–emotional health, except for the Socially Fulfilled and Socially Searching pair. This provides empirical evidence for the model’s application and usefulness by demonstrating that both constructs, belonging and loneliness, play a significant and unique role in elucidating social–emotional health in children. Implications and future directions are discussed.